Tag Archives: 5k

Background: In retrospect, I’m not really sure why I entered this 5k trail race in the Parliament Hill area of Hampstead Heath. I could have just run Hampstead Heath parkrun…for free. But I had pleasant memories of running the Jubilee Hall Trust 10k a couple of years ago, and the entry fee went towards the British Heart Foundation and the Jubilee Hall Trust‘s work to help people improve their heart health, so why not? I also thought this race would be good hill training and preparation for cross country season (although again, I could’ve just done HH parkrun).

Goal: I had a full-on workweek leading up to the Saturday morning race, so didn’t have high expectations for my run. However, based on my 10k a couple of weeks ago, I thought I could aim for 23:00 or under. My stretch goal was to aim for close to 22:00, but knowing how hilly the course was, I knew it would be difficult.

Race strategy: Run by feel and use the downhills. See what happens.

Weather & outfit: A beautiful late summer/early autumn morning: warm in the sun and cool in the shade. Around 20C/68F. I wore shorts, Heathside vest, and sunglasses. Although this was a trail race, the weather has been dry and part of the race was on paved paths, so I didn’t wear my trail shoes but instead went for my new Brooks Ghost 11 trainers (I’m a fan!).

Photo credit: Phil Rumbelow

The race: F and I jogged the 2 miles down to Parliament Hill together but of course were mega-early so I collected my number and hung around for longer than ideal. I was not warm anymore by the time the race started. I was one of the only people in a club vest; this was very much a local charity race, which gave it a low-key feel. The small field of 31 5k runners lined up first, and off we went up and over the grassy knoll and down to the paved paths by the ponds.

Only one other woman was in front of me but she was way ahead so I tried to settle into my own rhythm. My legs felt heavy and I was disappointed when the first kilometer went by in 4:34. There goes my 22:00 goal, I thought. Oh well, just do your best. These hills are killer. Around past the Ladies’ Pond and into the wooded part of the course. Mostly uphill. Second kilometer: 5:12. Ugh. Just keep running. Use the downhills in the second half of the course. With two kilometers to go, we finally had some reprieve from climbing. I pumped my arms and tried to work my legs as fast as they could go. My fourth kilometer was 4:11 and I brought it home in 4:06 pace, glad to finish and not have to run another lap like the 10k runners. I ended up running the entire race pretty much on my own, which didn’t make it any easier.

Finishing. Photo credit: Phil Rumbelow.

The result: I finished the race in a 21:46 chip time (7:29/mi = 4:39/km) and came 6th of 31 5k finishers and 2nd woman of 18. Although my time looks fast, the course was actually 4.68km rather than 5k, so I was actually on track for about a 23:15 finish time.

This was not a particularly fun race. I was happy that the course was short. My legs felt sluggish and the hills were hard. I’m glad I did it, though, and it definitely counts as a good hill/XC training run if nothing else!

Post-race: Slow jog home with goody bag, including a decent technical t-shirt in navy – a color I didn’t have yet!

Next up: The annual Middlesex 10k in two weeks. It’s flat, so hopefully I can run a good time. I think I need to incorporate more speedwork, though, as I’ve struggled to average under 4:38/km in recent races and workouts. I need a bit of a boost to get under that threshold.

Last month, one of my co-workers sent me a link to the City v Wharf 5k and said ‘We should run this!’ A Wednesday evening race in flat Victoria Park, on my way home from work? And a rare chance to run a timed 5k that isn’t a parkrun? Heck yes. This race is set up as a corporate challenge of sorts, pitting runners from companies in the City of London against those from companies in Canary Wharf. Our little charity isn’t really either, but the main office is on the Isle of Dogs, just hop across the Quay from Canary Wharf. We got three of our other fitness-minded co-workers to join us so we had enough for a team. Here’s what went down:

Post-race with running co-workers (photo courtesy of HP)

A lovely day — cool and partly sunny — dawned for the City v Wharf 5k in Victoria Park. The race was at 6pm, a slightly unusual running time for me, but I fueled well for lunch and packed a peanut butter and honey sandwich along with a banana for my pre-race snack. When we got to the race HQ, we dropped off our bags and were instructed to pick up our “City Runner” or “Wharf Runner” sweatbands — not a bad perk for the entry fee.

I wanted to use this chip-timed 5k as a test of my fitness and to see how close I could get to my PB from 2012. I have been getting to the track pretty consistently over the past month and have had some good longer runs in preparation for the Middlesex 10k next weekend, so a PB was not impossible to consider. As usual, I set myself two goals: a dream goal — run a PB — and a more conservative, achievable goal — run as close to 22:00 as possible and ideally under.

Since 5k races are over almost as soon as they begin, it’s good to have a race strategy. I recently read an article on Runner’s World about how professionals pace mid-distance track races: in the 1500m and 5000m, the first and last laps are almost always the fastest. I thought that could work well for a flat road 5k, so I decided to try and run the first kilometer fast, the middle three steady and more relaxed, and the last one fast. To run a PB I needed to run the first and last kilometers around 4:00 and the middle three at an average pace of 4:20/km.

The pacing strategy worked: I ran an almost perfect inverse pyramid of 4:04, 4:18, 4:30, 4:22, and 4:00 kilometers. I might have gone out too fast, as the 4:30 third kilometer was probably too slow, but it paid off in any case because I ran a PR/PB by 6 seconds! I stopped my Garmin at the finish exactly on my previous PB of 21:18, so it wasn’t until I got home and saw the official chip time results that I knew it was a PB. My official time was 21:12 (average pace of 4:14/km / 6:50/mile). I was the 13th woman of 260 and 146th of 801 runners overall. I am really pleased with the time and it proves that I am in good shape at the moment.

Two of my co-workers also ran PBs and the other two ran really well — one had a dramatic sprint finish with a guy from another company. The post-race food was unfortunately non-existent — just bowls of candy — but the atmosphere was great and it was fun to race on a weekday evening. Cycling home felt really easy after the effort I gave in the race.

Next up: Middlesex 10k in Victoria Park — a fast club race back in my favourite racing location!